All articles by Robert Cicetti

Robert Cicetti

On New Year’s Eve I found myself ringing in 2014 at Outlet gallery in Bushwick, watching Miao Jiaxin’s performance piece “News.” It was a fitting choice: “News” elicits a hollow catharsis not unlike a New Year’s Day hangover.

It’s December 21st and the world as we know it is still here. The Mayans probably stopped their calendar because they thought by now we’d have a better grasp of the cosmic forces that lie beyond the scope of human reason, but as much as we know, it’s not like we’re more advanced. Indeed, because we now depend on data to make sense of all that is nebulous, from trading stocks with bots to finding a soulmate before the first date, our deference given to algorithms is hardly different than a shamanistic belief in spirits, Nate Silver being our high priest.

Wes Heiss’s presentation of “Chariot” at Vox Populi, an artist-run gallery in Philly, is a modest proposal for an uber-wealthy escape pod. Offering all the trappings of a trade show, Heiss’s exhibition convincingly makes a case for protecting oneself from a plebeian demise.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York is legendary for its examples of exquisite taxidermy and assemblages of bones, but these artifacts owe much of their vital aura to the museum’s trompe l’oeil murals, which offer sweeping panoramic visions of a land before time. Despite their flat surfaces, they can be more immersive than any faux-fur facsimiles, and yet, by virtue of their own being, readily fade into the scenery.

Sex is fundamental to our existence, but expressing it always involves some pussyfooting around — otherwise we’d have to come to grips with gonads and gestation, when fulfilling our biological purpose is the last thing on our mind. Even the word “sex” is often too straightforward, so we rely on euphemism and innuendo to obfuscate the obvious for the sake of modesty. There has always been one haven, however, for letting it all hang out: art, from antiquity on, has made disrobed humans look more like demigods than animals.

Jayson Musson aka Hennessy Youngman aka Mr. AKA’s might proclaim himself to be many things (including Mitt Romney’s drug dealer), but Tuesday night at Electronic Arts Intermix’s (EAI) screening of his web series Art Thoughtz, Musson seemed reluctant to embrace his identity as an art world celebrity. He pointed to the fact that in total, his videos had only received a little over two million views, which is nothing special in comparison with other viral video stars.

Yesterday’s May Day protest in NYC might have failed to shut the system down, but it did successfully galvanize Occupy’s disparate interest groups into one powerful amalgamation, proving the movement’s lack of cohesion, more accurately its complexity, is a strength that defines it.